Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and comedian. After several years performing stand-up comedy, Schneider was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1994.
Following his departure from SNL, he went on to a career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and its 2005 sequel, The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), The Benchwarmers (2006), and Big Stan (2007). Schneider is the father of singer Elle King.
Early life
Schneider was born in San Francisco, California on Halloween Day in 1963, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Pacifica. His parents were Pilar (née Monroe), a former kindergarten teacher and ex-school board president, and Marvin Schneider, a real estate broker. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic. Schneider's maternal grandmother was a Filipina who met and married his grandfather, a white American army private, while he was stationed in the Philippines. His mixed background has been a common theme throughout his career. Schneider graduated from Terra Nova High School in 1982 and then attended San Francisco State University. His older brother, John, is a producer.
Career
Early career
Schneider made his debut appearance on television in 1987, on HBO's 13th Annual Young Comedians special, which was hosted by comedian Dennis Miller.
Saturday Night Live
Schneider was part of the comedy team at NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (From 1990 to 1994 at SNL), he played such roles as "Tiny Elvis", "Orgasm Guy",Richard Laymer, the office worker beside the photocopier, who addressed each of his fellow employees with an endless stream of annoying gossip. Schneider is featured in the video release The Bad Boys of Saturday Night Live, along with colleagues Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Chris Farley.
Recurring SNL characters
The Richmeister, an office worker who annoys people by giving them nicknames as they make copies. Carlo, from the Il Cantore Restaurant sketches The Sensitive Naked Man, a nude man who gives advice to other characters
Feature films, sitcoms, and endorsements
After leaving SNL, Schneider played supporting roles in a series of movies including Surf Ninjas, Judge Dredd, The Beverly Hillbillies, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Demolition Man, and Down Periscope. He also appeared in a recurring part on the television series Coach. In 1996, he co-starred in the NBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly, an American take on the hit British series of the same name. The U.S. version ran for two seasons.
Schneider starred in the 1999 feature film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a tale of a fish-tank cleaner who incurs a massive debt and is forced to become a "man-whore." This was followed by The Animal, about a man given animal powers by a mad scientist; The Hot Chick, wherein the body of a petty thief named Clive Maxtone (played by Schneider) is mystically switched with the body of a pretty, but mean-spirited high school cheerleader named Jessica Spencer (played by Rachel McAdams in her film debut); and the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. The latter movie was not well received by critics or moviegoers, and as a result, Schneider won a 2005 Worst Actor Razzie Award for his role in the film.
In 2006, Schneider co-starred in the baseball-themed family comedy The Benchwarmers, along with his fellow SNL alumnus David Spade as well as Jon Heder. Other film roles include Schneider's appearance with Jim Henson's Muppets in the 1999 film Muppets from Space, and his role as a San Francisco hobo in the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days.
Schneider's directorial debut, the comedy Big Stan, was released in some overseas markets during the fall of 2008, with a U.S. release in early 2009. In the film, he starred as a real estate con artist who is arrested for perpetrating real-estate scams. He is sentenced to prison, so he takes a crash-course in martial arts to survive incarceration.